If you happen to stumble into this foreign space, my tiny realm dedicated to rambling and personal gratification, then hello. Take a seat, if you aren't sitting already, and have a look around, assuming I'll have something to look around at. At the time of my writing this I enter into my 4th consecutive year of studying the Japanese Language in a collegiate setting. This same time twelve months from now I will have accomplished a Baccalaureate in said language. Who knows if this little blog of mine will last as long.
The Goal
To pack on another 300 hours of Japanese language learning over the next 3 months. Hopefully, before the start of the Fall term. I'll try my best to do 25 hours a week for 12 weeks.
The Reason
Since the beginning of my Japanese pursuit, each and every professor has claimed that I should be spending 2 hours studying for every single hour of class time. I'll just come out and say that didn't happen. Not even remotely. I found an interesting website that ranked and provided recommended hours of study to become competent/proficient in a given language. (http://www.effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty)
To attain that level with Japanese, it recommends at least 2200 hours of learning exposure. They say this is possible within 88 weeks of study, at about 25 hours per week (for those not wanting to take out the calculators: ~3.5 hours each day).
My Frustration
I tallied up how many hours I've put into learning the language ( this includes being in class and studying for class). I'm sitting somewhere around 600 hours of Japanese exposure. ONLY 600 HOURS!?
If I had followed the advice of every instructor, I'd be sitting pretty at around 1100 hours. I'm roughly half of my expected results. If I line my condition up with the effective language learning scale, then I've only completed about 24 weeks of the 88 required. These 24 weeks are loosely spread over the course of 3 years. Shockingly underwhelming when compared to how long I've been at this.
Obviously, there are points in language learning where such dedication is not required. Such as learning the kana (ひらがな; hiragana, カタカナ; katakana). Though, I didn't find my first 2 years of Japanese overly challenging. The coursework was nothing burdensome and I maintained near the top of my class with relatively little, or no, studying. However, this was at a local community college. Not a coincidence, I believe. However, my lack of dedication to the language at this point set me up to struggle and accounts for my gross lack of vocabulary. Transitioning to a university, that happens to use a different textbook and teaching style, I was doing everything possible to keep my head above water.
Contributing to my anxiety, many of my peers have spent a number of years abroad in Japan for various reasons, and so, their exposure time to the language is far beyond my own. This often lands a heavy blow on my self-esteem. As well as, sets up a precedent for the class average in the eyes of the professor. There are many occasions where I'm only 60% coherent about what is taking place in class, during the portions of class taught solely in Japanese. But, I must push on... right?
I've put 3 years of my education into this language so far. This last year, honestly, being the hardest and providing the greatest exponential growth of my abilities. I feel more competent and confident with the language than I did after finishing my associates. The challenge set before me by this program has been grueling sometimes, but has forced me to try harder and become better. Frequently presenting me with sink or swim scenarios. Which, I must add, gave me consistent irritable bowels and nausea. Those 30 minutes before class started were usually spent in the bathroom expelling what I could.
I plan on turning this into a career. I enjoy translating Japanese into English (don't confuse this with interpreting Japanese into English. My brain short circuits in my current condition). Especially when I'm simply sitting at home, going at my own pace. It's a fantastic feeling. I want to become fluent enough to translate Japanese > English and English > Japanese. I've gathered a great number of educational tools so far and I feel confident enough in my ability, and eagerness to improve, that I can pull this off.
What to Expect
If you decide to tag along, or stop in randomly, you will find content related to Japanese children's books, reading comprehension questions, vocab lists, etc. Effectively, the methods that have been used to teach me Japanese will be reproduced on this blog with different core material. I'll do my best to post source text so that anyone else who so wishes can follow along at home and level up their Japanese language skills.
The method that never fails to help me improve, in any subject, is going through the effort of teaching others. That process of preparing information to help someone else understand also goes on to solidify my own understanding.
I have finals coming up next week, so I would be surprised if I post before I'm finished with that, but you never know. Most likely, I will make a presence the week after. Let's level up!
B
